One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

Ah San gave Robert a knowing look and quickly walked into the kitchen.

"You know us?"

Miss Valentine said with a teasing smile, "That wouldn't be fun."

Robert tried to remain calm and said, "Please come upstairs, let's sit down and have a proper talk."

Without any hesitation, the two, their formidable strength bringing absolute confidence, followed Robert upstairs.

The three sat down at a round table, and Robert spoke first:

"I've also been following the disbandment of the Baroque Workshop, but the two of you shouldn't have fallen to the point of becoming slaves. I don't think those useless bunch around Jaya Island have the ability to capture you two."

Miss Golden Week speaks very little; most of the time, Miss Valentine represents the negotiation team.

"We're just a bunch of stray dogs, stranded on Jaya Island looking for a place to stay. I wonder if you, boss, would be willing to take us in?"

Robert didn't believe a word of these words. Although he always chose to skip the original filler scenes in the animated series, he had read all the side stories in the comics.

During this period, they should be evading the pursuit of the newly promoted naval captain Tina while rushing to the detention center to rescue their companions imprisoned at Baroque Works. They will eventually clash with Tina on the resort island.

Thinking about it carefully, the resort island is not far from Gaya, so it makes sense that the group would stop over in Gaya.

"Let's not beat around the bush. My nicknames are Timely Rain and Little Mengchang. In the first half of the Grand Line, everyone in the bandit world calls me 'Good Brother' or 'Hero' in awe. I'm never stingy when it comes to helping ordinary heroes who have fallen on hard times. If you two are short of travel expenses, I'll lend you some. What's wrong with us becoming friends? But if you two have some other motives..."

Ignoring Robert's threats, Miss Golden Week asked calmly and without any emotion, "Didn't you just kill your former boss to take over? How did you get that reputation before?"

Robert showed no embarrassment at being exposed on the spot: "None of that matters. What I want to say is that if you two have any requests, you should just tell me directly. I will definitely help if I can. Let's be open and honest with each other to avoid mutual suspicion."

Miss Valentine smiled and said, "Since that's the case, I'll be frank. We and a few other companions split up to gather information and agreed to meet up on Jaya Island. So, we've set our sights on your tallest and largest tavern in town and want to work here for a few days. We don't want your wages; we'll just leave once we meet up with our companions."

Robert has his own plan. Right now, he just wants to survive until the main characters arrive here, and then follow the plot step by step to achieve his goal. The thing he hates most is any unexpected complications.

"It's not that I'm unwilling to take you all in, but as you know, I took over by killing my former boss, so I'm actually in a terrible predicament myself. There's a powerful pirate behind him, and I don't even know if I'll survive if that guy comes back, so..."

Miss Valentine's Day gave a strange look: "You dare to make a move when you're not even confident you can take care of the people behind them?"

Robert scratched his head: "I didn't know he had someone backing him when I made the move..."

Miss Valentine said, "We'll be staying here until we gather all our companions. Consider this your accommodation fee. If you ever run into trouble, we can help you out. How about it, little boss?"

Robert was tempted, but still pretended to be reserved and said, "Isn't this a bad idea? The other party is Rossio, a great pirate with a bounty of 4200 million Berries. Won't it implicate you all?"

Miss Valentine covered her mouth with her hand and laughed: "Bounty doesn't represent strength. There are always some self-righteous fools in this world who think that a big reputation can prove their strength, so they work themselves to the bone, but forget that the bounty is actually the price tag for their heads. The higher the bounty, the faster they will die."

While reading the manga, Robert thought more than once that with Crocodile's strength, even if his bounty was removed after joining the Seven Warlords of the Sea, it was impossible for him to only have a bounty of 8100 million Berries.

At the time, we could only attribute it to their early appearance and suppressed combat power, but now it seems there are other reasons behind it.

"People like us naturally try to keep our bounties as low as possible and try to shift the blame onto others. Otherwise, with the strength of our Baroque Works, the total bounty should have exceeded one billion by now."

The white-haired Rossio, although he could kill his own group one by one with a single slash, was actually killed by another great pirate, Bellamy, with a single shot in the story. And Bellamy, who killed him, couldn't even withstand a single punch from Luffy.

Recalling the imposing presence of these Baroque Works members when they first appeared, each of them fought the main characters to a standstill, only managing to be defeated after one or two episodes. In that case, it seems that dealing with Rossio, who can be taken down with a single shot, shouldn't be too difficult for them.

Robert smiled broadly and extended his right hand: "Then I'll have to trouble you two to stay at the inn for the time being. If you need anything, just let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you."

Miss Valentine extended her right hand and shook hands with Robert: "You're the boss, so just treat us like normal employees and assign us tasks. My dream is to open my own coffee shop, so I'll just consider this a chance to learn how to run a business."

They spoke eloquently, but Robert dared not actually let these two troublemakers follow him into the kitchen and inhale the fumes. He had already made up his mind to let them work at the front desk collecting money or something.

"How about we have Miss Valentine at the front desk to collect payments, and Miss Golden Week at the food counter to distribute orders?"

Miss Golden Week pouted and said, "I refuse. I want to serve dishes in the lobby."

Robert was speechless, thinking that people who are famous in the One Piece world are basically all crazy, choosing to be waiters instead of doing easy jobs.

Miss Valentine laughed and said, "Little boss, you don't need to keep calling us by our code names. Do you want everyone to know that we remnants of Baroque Works are here? Just call me Michita and her Marianu."

Robert nodded. These were their real names, and the two of them hadn't put any tricks into their self-introductions.

"By the way, I still don't know your name, young boss."

Robert casually replied, "My name is Robert De Niro, you can just call me Robert."

Miss Valentine's Day's smile froze, and her expression instantly turned serious:

"Robert D. Neru? You're a member of the D. clan!"

Chapter 15 Miracles Happen with Great Strength

Robert's mind was practically blank. He'd somehow become a member of the world's biggest anti-government family?

However, he did not deny it. He had not forgotten that when he opened the item space earlier, there was a clear prompt that the size of the space would change according to his reputation.

The name "D Clan" is a double-edged sword. The World Government explicitly defines this clan as anti-government elements, but it has not imposed any bounties or hunted down members of the D Clan.

Conversely, forces such as pirates and resistance fighters will look at you with more respect when they hear that you belong to the D clan.

At least the two women who were laughing and joking and didn't seem to care about him just now visibly toned down their lazy attitude as soon as they heard his name.

And so, in this eerie atmosphere, the Wild Cherry Tavern reopened.

The cashier at the front desk has been replaced by a tall, beautiful blonde woman, while the waitresses are now a combination of the original employee and a cute young girl.

Ah San had to go to buy supplies and purchase things for Robert, so he didn't participate in the tavern's operations. Robert chose a stronger-looking employee to work in the kitchen preparing food.

Although the change of owner and head chef caused many regular customers to complain and not choose to dine in, as time went by and word of mouth spread, even if they wanted to come back, there were no seats available.

The restaurant's original menu was completely overturned and replaced with dishes personally drafted by Robert.

He has never forgotten to improve his level. The situation of killing more than a dozen people at once like yesterday is impossible to happen again, so cooking is the best way to level up now.

Robert was full of energy. Now that he had a kitchen under his complete control and ingredients at his disposal, he was determined to make a dish that was at least D grade!

Although the kitchen only had one head chef, Robert, and one assistant who could only do odd jobs, their efficiency in serving food was much better than that of the two rough men, Ah Da and Ah Er, before.

The tavern's dining area on the lower three floors was soon packed. Robert almost left afterimages as he swung his arms around in the kitchen, as if he had been transported back to his time at culinary school.

If it weren't for the fact that his strength and stamina are now twice that of a normal person, he would probably have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

It was only the first day of opening when a pleasant notification sound rang in my ears.

Your level has increased from 3 to 4 (6/800)

After taking down the two employees who tried to kill him, Robert only needed 70 more experience points to level up. With the boost from high-intensity cooking, he quickly leveled up.

He no longer faces constant combat as before, so attributes that improve leveling efficiency become the primary focus for stat allocation.

Endurance determines how long one can work continuously, and it is also a prerequisite for adding points to strength and agility. In addition, due to his obsessive-compulsive disorder, Robert allocated 4 of his newly acquired 5 free attribute points to endurance, raising his endurance attribute to 15 points.

Robert allocated the remaining attribute points to his mental stat, bringing his mental strength at least up to that of an average person.

They worked all night, and it wasn't until almost 1 a.m. that they saw off the last table of pirates.

The cleaning and tidying was handed over to the two shop assistants, and Miss Valentine and Miss Golden Week, the two little devils, were arranged to stay in the bedroom on the fourth floor. Robert himself went back to his former boss's office.

A night of intense cooking not only failed to produce even a single dish of D-grade quality or higher, but also resulted in a significant reduction in the experience points gained from cooking.

Robert was now certain that D-level was probably the highest rating for ordinary cooking. To surpass this level, one would either need a cooking technique unique to this world or high-grade ingredients, neither of which he could currently manage.

Based on the current rate of experience gain, continuing to make D-level cooking will only allow you to level up one more time.

With a level five strength, one probably couldn't even defeat some nameless cannon fodder, let alone match one's next plan.

Robert's expression turned cold. The world of One Piece has never been an easy or pleasant place. To survive, one must constantly become stronger, and cooking is clearly not enough to become stronger.

He wants to kill someone!

When Luffy first set sail, his combat strength was only average. He had to fight a tough battle against the Black Cat Pirates.

But in just one year, he caused trouble everywhere, acting recklessly all the way, and his strength quickly increased to the point where he could participate in major events like the Marineford War.

Who dares to say Luffy is just fooling around aimlessly? He's probably the most cunning one. He may seem like a brainless brute, but in reality, he's leveling up by defeating monsters at every step!

Previously, when Robert was reading the novel, he looked down on those who followed the plot, thinking they were just repeating the original story to pad the word count and sucking the blood of the main characters.

Now it seems that joining a crew was a good path. There is no one in the world who can cause more trouble than Luffy and his crew. And causing trouble means having enough enemies. Enemies mean there will be battles. Battles mean experience. The logic is consistent!

Lost in thought, Robert gradually drifted off to sleep.

The next few days became ordinary and uneventful. Robert spent his days cooking, gaining experience, and receiving messages and items brought back by the Indian.

When Ah San had free time, he would help out at the shop, assisting Robert. Surprisingly, he had a talent for cooking; after watching for a day, he was able to learn to handle some steaming, boiling, and plating tasks.

Although experience gain is slow, Robert still managed to raise his level to level five by producing a huge amount of food. After that, cooking no longer provides any experience.

Just as Robert was about to add attribute points to agility to make up for his last weakness in melee combat, the Indian rushed into the kitchen.

"Sir! Your custom-made iron bucket is complete!"

Robert stopped what he was doing and looked at the large iron barrel that Ah San had been having his men carry into the house.

The iron bucket has an opening diameter of 80 centimeters, and its body is made of iron sheet that is nearly 5 millimeters thick. It is also wrapped with three iron rings, and its height is 1.1 meters.

This iron bucket was a crucial part of his plan, and Robert believed it was absolutely essential to keep it.

But Robert didn’t go over to check on him immediately, because the Indian was clearly preoccupied.

"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Ah San was still trying to hide it, but when Robert glared at him, he immediately deflated.

"It's those shareholders. I went to buy goods these past two days... and they kept giving me a hard time, sir. I feel like they're trying to test us. Don't worry, I'll find a way to resolve this!"

Robert pretended to be nonchalant, knowing he would leave once the plot unfolded, and he could just get through this period.

"Ignore them and keep things the same. The more you act as usual, the less they will know what we're up to."

Ah San seemed comforted and turned around with renewed energy to direct people to move the goods.

Robert opened the iron lid of the barrel and crawled inside.

He's just over 1.8 meters tall, just big enough to squeeze into the bucket and make sure the lid is on.

However, this size means that the iron bucket cannot fit into the prop space which is only one cubic meter in size, and you have to carry it on your back to move it.

Taking a deep breath and holding the iron bucket in his arms, even with Robert's strength being more than twice that of a normal person, he almost couldn't lift the bucket.

The bucket weighs about 120 to 130 kilograms, and given its enormous size, carrying it around is practically a joke.

Robert gave a wry smile. His plan was still a bit too naive, but now that things had come to this, he absolutely could not back down. He gritted his teeth and added all five attribute points to strength!

do not care!

Abandon all ingenuity and cleverness! Only brute force can create miracles!